Men's Basketball picked to finish second

BIRMINGHAM, Ala -- Southern University senior forward Jared Sam and senior guard Chris Thomas was named to the Preseason All-Conference team and the Jaguars were tabbed to finish second, the Southwestern Athletic Conference as announced by Wednesday morning.

Sam was named to the first team Preseason All-Conference team, started all 33 games last season for the Jaguars, he was second on the team in scoring, averaging 13.3 points a game and leading the team with 7.4 rebounds a contest. The Baton Rouge native, was an All-SWAC Second-Team performer last season averaged 32.6 minutes a game.

Thomas was named to the second team Preseason All-Conference team after averaging 8.4 points and 4.7 rebounds per game last season. Thomas started in 12 games last season and averaged 23.2 minutes per game. The Baton Rouge native averaged 9.3 in conference play.

The Jaguars was tabbed to finish second behind Texas Southern University, last season tournament and regular season champions. Southern finished 15-18 overall, and 10-8 in conference. Following Southern, is Jackson State (124), Alcorn State (117), Prairie View A&M (99) to round off the top five.

The Jags return nine players from last season squad.

The 2017-18 season will tip-off in Champaigne, Illinois versus the University of Illionois Illini on November 10. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.